


Coyote Goes to Greasy Grass

by DebraHicks



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Native American/First Nations Legends & Lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26552299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DebraHicks/pseuds/DebraHicks
Summary: The Battle of Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass) from Coyote's point of view.Originally published in "Nomad and Standby" 9/1993
Kudos: 1





	Coyote Goes to Greasy Grass

Coyote was very impressed, which is impressive, since Coyote isn't easy to impress.

"No," Coyote said, "I'm not easy to impress."

The camp was impressive, stretching out for as far down the river as Coyote could see. It was a beautiful camp; the tipis fine and tall, the ponies slick on the summer grass, the river a deep, fine silver. Coyote sat down and sighed, enjoying the view.

Then the wind changed. Coyote stuck his noise up.

"That smells interesting," Coyote said.

He hopped up and sprinted away, running over the gullies and leaping the river without getting his feet. When he finally topped a high ridge, there before him was a very surprising sight.

"Now, there's a very surprising sight," Coyote said. He sat down and scratched his noise thoughtfully. "White people."

"White soldiers," Buffalo said, having walked up to join Coyote.

"That's bad," Coyote observed.

"Yes," Buffalo agreed in his ground shaking voice. "They are going to attack the camp."

As they talked the soldiers divided up into three groups.

Coyote declared, "I'll go warn the camp. Then the warriors can come out and kill the white soldiers."

"The camp knows," Buffalo said patiently. "The old medicine chief made an offering and Grandfather sent him a vision.

"That's good," Coyote agreed, feeling a little disappointed that he couldn't run off to the camp.

"The white soldiers have many rifles though," Buffalo said thoughtfully. "It might be a good idea for someone to scout the whites before they reach the camp."

Coyote leapt straight up in the air and came down on all fours. "I can do that!"

Buffalo looked at him very seriously. "But you mustn't do anything but scout. Come back here and tell me how many whites there are, then I will go tell the old chief."

"Oh, yes, I'll do that," Coyote said gleefully, glad to have something important to do.

Without saying good-bye to Buffalo, Coyote ran off toward the river, going as fast as he could. Buffalo watched him disappear through the long grass and chuckled. If there was one thing Coyote was more famous for than his luck, it was that he never listened to advice.

So.

Coyote went running over the uneven terrain until he caught up with the first group of soldiers. But by the time he got there some of the human beings from the camp had already seen the soldiers. Whoops, yells and gunshots filled the fine summer air.

"Well," Coyote said, "this looks to be a very good fight. Think I'll just sit here and watch."

Completely forgetting about what Buffalo had told him, Coyote squatted down on his haunches and watched as the warriors drove the white soldiers back toward the river. Coyote was right, it was a very good fight. But after a little bit of sunlight had passed Coyote got bored.

"This is getting boring," Coyote said. Then he remembered what Buffalo had told him. "Oh, I'm suppose to go back to Buffalo."

Coyote started counting the soldiers that were left and soon ran out of fingers and toes. "This is silly," Coyote said. "It's getting much too hot to run back to Buffalo when the human beings are doing such a good job of killing the white soldiers."

After another minute of watching the soldiers run toward the river, Coyote decided, "I think I'll just help out a little bit."

"I knew you'd do that," Buffalo said, sitting on a hill far away.

Ignoring Buffalo, Coyote did something very unusual for Coyote, he thought about what he was going to do. The whites were very close to the river now, which had sloping banks and was clear and swallow. That's when Coyote got an idea.

"I've got an idea," Coyote said.

Moving a little down the slope, Coyote called to the river, politely asking for it's help.

After a minute the river said, "What do you want?"

"You see all those white soldiers coming toward you?"

"How could I miss them?" river said sarcastically. "They're very noisy and not a one of them stopped to bath."

"The people need you to help stop them from getting away," Coyote explained.

There was a moment's pause then the river asked, "How should I do that?"

"I have an idea, remember," Coyote reminded him. "Why don't you raise you're banks and make them slippery so that the soldiers fall in and get caught?"

"I like that idea," river admitted. And it did just that, laughing as the soldiers started falling in.

"That's good," Coyote approved. "I have go after the others."

So.

Coyote went hightailing it after the second group, and since Coyote can run as fast as he wants for as far as he wants, he caught up with them pretty soon. These soldiers were far away from the others, moving back toward the fighting very slowly. Coyote was a little confused.

"I'm a little confused," Coyote said.

Coming up to the lead horse Coyote trotted along next to it. Coyote didn't like white soldier's horses as much as human beings' ponies.

"They aren't as smart," Coyote explained. "But I don't mind talking to them."

"Hi," Coyote called.

"Hello," the horse replied sounding very surprised.

"I'm Coyote. Can I ask you a question?"

"Can I ask you one first?" the horse returned.

Coyote, being very polite, said, "Sure."

"How come you're not afraid of my rider like all the other animals?"

Coyote chuckled. "'Cause white people can't see me."

"Oh," the horse replied. "What was your question?"

"If these white soldiers are suppose to be helping the other white soldiers, why are they going so slow? Are they cowards? Are they afraid to fight?"

"Humm," the horse said thoughtfully. "No, I don't think they're cowards. I think they're just stupid. They think that all the other soldiers will have killed all the Indians by the time we get there, so there's no need to hurry."

"Oh," Coyote said. "What do you think?"

"I think," the horse laughed, "that I'd rather be here than there."

"That's a very good thing to think." Coyote told the horse. "Thank you for answering my question."

"You're welcome. Are you going to do anything about these soldiers?" the horse wondered.

Coyote sat down and scratched at a flea on his neck. "No. I don't need to. I'd better go find that last bunch."

So.

Coyote came into the valley from the far end and looked up into the hills. On the side of the small rise there was a group of soldiers being chased uphill. Coyote sat down again, studying the situation. There weren't very many soldiers left. As Coyote watched, one of the soldiers, the war chief Coyote reckoned, began shouting orders to the others. When they reached the top of the hill the soldiers started shooting their horses.

"That's too bad," Coyote said. "Even if they aren't as smart."

The soldiers crouched behind their dead horses, shooting over them.

"I really should do something about that," Coyote said.

Being that this was a very serious fight, Coyote decided that it called for some very serious magic. Coyote started trotting slowly around and in between all the white soldiers. And he started singing. Now, sometimes when Coyote sings, nothing happens, and sometimes when Coyote sings everything happens, about half the time good everythings, and about half the time bad everythings. This time it was a good everything.

The soldiers started going white around the eyes and they started yelling even louder for their chief. Coyote smiled and sang louder, Coyote knew that even though the white soldiers couldn't see him they could hear his song on the wind. And they knew it was their death song.

"Now, about the head chief," Coyote said.

Coyote turned and sprinted up the hill to where the big white chief was giving orders. Coyote ran right over to him and pissed on his leg. The man didn't see him but Coyote still found it very satisfying.

"That was very satisfying," Coyote remarked.

The warriors, who could see Coyote, cheered as he did this and charged forward through the last soldiers. Coyote smiled with all his teeth and dashed off the low hill just as the white chief fell.

Coyote trotted up the ridge and sat down next to Buffalo to watch the fight finish.

"The human beings won this time," Coyote said.

"The human beings will be going away soon," Buffalo said sadly.

"They'll be back," Coyote reminded him. "It's not forever."

"No, not forever," Buffalo agreed.

"It would be a dull world without human beings," Coyote said wisely, for Coyote can be as wise as he is silly.

"That's a very wise thing to say," Buffalo told him.

Coyote smiled. "Thank you. Let's go eat."

And Coyote trotted down the trail away from the low hill.


End file.
